This morning a group of 15 survivors of last year's attempted
assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) published an op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star calling on President Obama to "get
moving" on the effort to close loopholes in the background check system
for gun purchases. The letter marks the one year anniversary President Obama's own op-ed in the Daily Star encouraging people to "seek agreement on gun reforms."

President Obama discussed reforming the background check system in his editorial, but as today's letter notes little progress has been made towards reforms:

We
are resolved to work together to fix our background check system - to
protect others from the terrible violence that our community has
endured.

Last
November, we traveled to Washington, D.C., to advocate for the Fix Gun
Checks Act, legislation that would make sure that the records of
prohibited gun purchasers are in the gun background-check system, and
require a background check for every gun sale. (See www.fixgunchecks.org online.)

We
personally met with some of our elected representatives about specific
steps to fix the system and help prevent senseless shootings.

We
believed we had the president as an ally in that effort. We were
encouraged last March when he said, "We should provide an instant,
accurate, comprehensive and consistent system for background checks to
sellers who want to do the right thing, and make sure that criminals
can't escape it."

Some
might argue that, because it's an election year, now is not the time to
act. And to those people we say: This is a common-sense proposal that
the American people overwhelmingly support.